An old video from 2018 where a group of foreigners are reciting Hindu shlokas, is viral online as a recent video from the White House in the United States. BOOM found that the claims are false; the video was shot in 2018 and was part of an event organised by a European group named Veda Union in Zagreb, Croatia.
The video shows a large number of foreigners dressed in traditional Indian attire chanting Sri Rudram Chamakam, a Vedic chant used to ward off difficulties and ensure a prosperous life.
A caption on Facebook reads, ""Shri Rudram Stotram" was recited at the White House in America. It is impossible to imagine that Americans can pronounce it so cleanly. Is it a great pride? "Sri Rudram Stotram" was recited by Jeffrey Arhardt at the White House. See this awesome video and feel proud being Sanatani."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The post is also circulating on X (formerly Twitter).
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is from Zagreb, Croatia and was taken at an event organised by Veda Union in March 2018.
A reverse image search of some key visuals from the video led us to a post on Facebook from May 2018. Shared by a page called Hindu Purohit Sangh, the post carried the same viral video with the caption that mentioned the event took place in Croatia and was organised by the European Veda association.
The full caption reads, "Shri Rudram and Chamakam performed by 400+ Europeans in Croatia. The European Veda association would be performing this across many places in Europe for world peace. Amazing! Absolutely proud to be born in the lineage of Vedic tradition. Looks like others are picking up where we left it."
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Taking a cue from this, we looked up "European Veda Association" on Google and found the website of Veda Union, a network of European veda chanting groups including countries like Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, and Russia, among others. According to the website, "The project has officially started after Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba accepted the letter of Veda Union founders."
Veda Union's website carried the details of an event, Rudram 11, held at Zagreb, Croatia on March 3 and 4, 2018. The event was the last leg of 11 chants of Sri Rudram Chamakam organised across different locations in Europe.
We then browsed through the photos from the event shared on the website and found that they matched the visuals in our viral video.
Below is a comparison between visuals from Rudram 11 in Zagreb, Croatia and the viral video: